C S E C The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/childprostitution/Swaziland.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Swaziland. Some of these
links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated,
misleading or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and how
some succeed in leaving. Perhaps your
paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their leaving. Other factors of interest might be poverty,
rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction, hunger, neglect,
etc. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults who control this
activity. There is a lot to the
subject of Child Prostitution. Scan
other countries as well as this one.
Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or
regions. Meanwhile, check out some of
the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Swaziland's Street
Urchins Vuyisile Hlatshwayo,
Africa Information Afrique, in Mbabane, Mail & Globe, 21August 1997 pangaea.org/street_children/africa/swazi.htm [accessed 26 July
2011] Nonhlanhla Hadzebe, a timid seven-year-old says: "The last time I saw my mother and father was when I was very little. I do not know where they are, but I know that they are still alive. At times I sleep without having eaten anything but I cannot complain -- to whom, anyway? I only pray to God that one day my parents will come back so that we can all be a family again." The study finds
that street children are often abused. Police spokesman, Sabelo Dlamini, said
that old men sodomize boys often as young as aged nine to thirteen. Many are
infected with sexually transmitted diseases. He says the street children are
enticed with E10.00 for a sex session. Before the molestation, they are
offered glue in order to keep them in "high" spirits during the
act. ***
ARCHIVES *** ECPAT Regional
Overview: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Africa [PDF] ECPAT International,
November 2014 www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Regional%20CSEC%20Overview_Africa.pdf [accessed 8
September 2020] Maps sexual
exploitation of children in travel and tourism (SECTT), online child sexual
exploitation (OCSE), trafficking of children for sexual purposes, sexual
exploitation of children through prostitution, and child early and forced
marriage (CEFM). Other topics include gender inequality, armed conflicts,
natural disasters, migration, and HIV/AIDS. Human
Rights Reports » 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 10, 2020 www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/eswatini/ [accessed 8
September 2020] SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - The SODV Act prohibits commercial sexual
exploitation, sale, offering, and procuring of children for prostitution, and
practices related to child pornography; conviction of these acts carries
strong penalties. Children were occasional victims of sex trafficking and commercial
sexual exploitation. The law criminalizes “mistreatment, neglect,
abandonment, or exposure of children to abuse” and imposes a statutory
minimum of five years’ imprisonment if convicted. Although the law sets the
age of sexual consent at 16, the SODV Act provides for a penalty of up to 20
years’ imprisonment for conviction of “maintaining a sexual relationship with
a child,” defined as a relationship that involves more than one sexual act
with a person younger than 18. 2018 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2019 www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 8
September 2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 490] In addition, on
August 1, 2018, the Sexual Offenses and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act entered
into force. The SODV Act establishes new legal protections for victims of
gender-based violence and exploitation, and criminalizes using, procuring,
and offering a child for commercial sexual exploitation, with a penalty of up
to 25 years’ imprisonment. (11,19,27) Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) [DOC] UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 29 September 2006 www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/10b2212322c3cf42c12572430050af96/$FILE/G0644621.doc [accessed 27
December 2010] [63] The Committee is
alarmed at the increasing rate of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse in
Swaziland, as noted in the State party report. The
Protection Project - Swaziland [DOC] The Paul H. Nitze
School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/swaziland.doc [accessed 2009] FORMS
OF TRAFFICKING
– Young girls have been lured to South Africa from Swaziland for forced
prostitution. Trading of emergency food aid for sexual favors has been a problem
in Swaziland. Women and children have been told that they must have sex with
warehouse managers or truck drivers so they can receive the food aid. Human trafficking
rife in SA Lebogang Seale,
Independent Online (IOL) News, 7 December 2006 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/human-trafficking-rife-in-sa-1.306483 [accessed 27
December 2010] They are promised a
better life in South Africa, but instead they are kidnapped, branded and sold
into sexual slavery for as little as R380. Women and children, some as
young as 13, are falling prey to syndicates operating in Mozambique and Swaziland,
trafficking and smuggling them to South Africa on an unprecedented scale. Harmonisation of
laws relating to children - Swaziland [DOC] Prepared by Jacqui
Gallinetti, The African Child Policy Forum, November 05, 2007 www.africanchildinfo.net/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=5&sobi2Id=387&Itemid=74&lang=en#.UgvTqKyOAmg [accessed 14
Aug 2013] CHILD AND SEXUAL
ABUSE
- Swazi law does provide some guidance on child prostitution. This is
contained in Part V of the Crimes Act which criminalizes a parent or guardian
for receiving compensation in relation to the prostitution of his or her
child; creates
an offence for inveigling or enticing a girl who is not a common prostitute
for the purposes of prostitution and
criminalizes a person for procuring any girl to become a prostitute. Sadly, these
provisions provide no protections for girls who are already prostitutes and
section 3 of the Girl’s and Women’s Protection Act states that a girl being a
common prostitute is a defence for a perpetrator who has unlawful carnal
connection with her. These provisions show
a definite lack of understanding of the issues relating to children
undertaking sex work and the dangers that they are exposed to. In addition it appears that sex workers are
prosecuted in Swaziland whilst the clients are not. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/swaziland.htm [accessed 27
December 2010] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are reports that girls from Swaziland and
Mozambique are increasingly found working in child prostitution in Swaziland. CHILD
LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - The Penal Code prohibits the procurement of a girl
unless she is a “common prostitute” or “of known immoral character” for
purposes of prostitution. CHILDREN
- The
law prohibits prostitution and child pornography, provides protection to
children under 16 years of age from sexual
exploitation, and sets the age of sexual consent at 16 years. There were
reports that Mozambican and Swazi girls worked as prostitutes in the country.
Children, including street children, were increasingly vulnerable to sexual
exploitation. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Child Prostitution - Swaziland",
http://gvnet.com/childprostitution/Swaziland.htm, [accessed <date>] |
